When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon
I’d been seeing this Indian-American YA love story everywhere, so I picked it up at the library and took it to the beach. Two teenagers meet at a web-development seminar in San Francisco, but Dimple doesn’t know that their parents are scheming to set them up (for marriage!). She throws her iced coffee in his face; they end up as project partners; and (spoiler) they fall in love anyway. Sweet and funny; I loved how both Dimple and Rishi wrestled with their family’s culture and traditions in honest, interesting ways.

Ash and Quill, Rachel Caine
Fugitives on the run from the powerful Library of Alexandria, Jess Brightwell and his band of friends have escaped to Philadelphia – which is full of enemies and also under threat from the Library’s forces. The best yet in Caine’s smart, fast-paced YA series: so much here about knowledge and power, information and freedom. Also: a motley crew of friends trying to save the world – knowing full well they might die in the attempt – is a story I always love.

The Book of Separation, Tova Mirvis
After spending her life ensconced in Orthodox Judaism, Mirvis found herself unable to remain there: even though it meant dismantling her marriage and uprooting her children’s lives, she knew she had to leave. A stunning, gorgeously written memoir of leaving and belonging, community and isolation, questioning and loving and figuring out different ways to be. To review for Shelf Awareness (out Sept. 19).

Evidence, Mary Oliver
I love Oliver’s poetry, and it is saving my life these days: wise, whimsical, keenly observed, insistent. I’ve been carrying this collection in my purse like a talisman. Some favorites: “Halleluiah,” “Mysteries, Yes,” “Evidence,” “The Singular and Cheerful Life.”